OFRD successfully conducted Badakhshan Province 1st Action coordination Group (ACG) meeting with the participation of high level Government officials from Badakhshan province, Director of CSO organizations in Badakhshan, High level officials from governor office and community representatives.

The ACG Meeting provided an opportunity to undertake, a thorough review of the coordination and cooperation level in between Government, CSOs and community people. The Meeting also discussed how to increase the coordination in mobilizing the network experience and encouraging the exchange of expertise and supporting capacity building at the provincial level for bringing positive changes in mining.

OFRD has successfully conducted the community meeting (CM) at Directorate of Information and culture hall of panjshir province, where more than 40 participants both male and female from different locations and districts of panjshir participated in community meeting (CM), the event has been started with the recitation of Holy Quran and introduction of OFRD representatives and the participants, after that a debate for information sharing regarding the Mining took place orally and through sticky notes, meanwhile a brief presentation has been presented by Allah Mohammad Ahmadzai (OFRD Provincial Program Officer). after the presentation, the participants were divided into three groups for group work, where productive group work was conducted and representatives for each group were selected, and they have separately presented their group work regarding mining.

OFRD have successfully conducted the community meeting (CM) at Directorate of Information and culture hall of panjshir province, where more than 40 participants both male and female from different locations and districts of panjshir participated in community meeting (CM), the event has been started with the recitation of holy Quran and introduction of OFRD representatives and the participants, after that a debate for information sharing regarding the Mining took place orally and through sticky notes, meanwhile a brief presentation has been presented by Allah Mohammad Ahmadzai (OFRD Provincial Program Officer). after the presentation the participants were divided into three groups for group work, where a productive group work was conducted and representatives for each group was selected, and they have separately present their group work regarding mining.

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Organization of Fast Relief & Development (OFRD) with the technical support of International organization for Migration (IOM) organized a second regional forum bringing together non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to discuss cross-border cooperation to combat human trafficking in Central and South Asia.

The two-day forum was part of the multi-year Combating Human Trafficking in Persons (CTIP) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by IOM. Participants include representatives of the Afghan government, counter trafficking NGOs, civil society organizations and media.

“By passing a new trafficking law (in 2017), we have created a good foundation to respond to trafficking in a more comprehensive way,” said Afghan Justice Minister and Chair of the TIP High Commission Dr. Abdul Basir Anwar. “I hope that the NGOs attending this forum can further strengthen our response to trafficking by increasing their cross-border cooperation.”

There is more internal than cross-border trafficking, but in recent years IOM has observed a steady increase in young women being trafficked to Afghanistan from neighboring countries.

Most Afghan victims of trafficking are women and children. While women are subjected to sexual and non-sexual exploitation, children are largely trafficked to work in carpet weaving and brick factories, domestic servitude, as bacha bazi (dancing boys) or for forced begging.

Victims are often sold by economically desperate families or kidnapped. As elsewhere, traffickers frequently subject their victims to coercion, violence and emotional abuse. Once abroad, traffickers usually confiscate their victims’ travel documents, making trans-border cooperation essential in order to rescue them.

“Trafficking in persons is a serious concern in Afghanistan and its neighboring countries,” said IOM Afghanistan Chief of Mission and Special Envoy Laurence Hart. “Promoting regional cooperation to help the government to effectively implement this new legislation is the central purpose of this forum.”

The first counter-trafficking regional forum, which was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in June 2017, saw NGOs from participating countries agree to coordinate their efforts. Afghan NGOs subsequently formed the Afghanistan Network for Combating Trafficking in Persons (ANCTIP), which was officially launched in May 2018. The network has started to work in partnership with Pakistani counterparts and plans to collaborate with other neighboring countries.

“Our role is to establish and strengthen cross border coordination among NGOs and CSOs to better identify, refer and protect the victims and to prosecute the traffickers,” said Mohammad Shoaib Nasiri, Country Director of forum co-organizer Fast Organization for Relief and Development (OFRD).